30th Annual Student Research Conference
Measuring the Spin Hall Effect and Applying Strain
Orion Guan
Dr. Vayujeet Gokhale, Faculty Mentor
We measure the spin Hall ratio of a 10nm layer of platinum grown on PbMgNbO3 - PbTiO3 while applying biaxial compressive strain. The spin Hall ratio measures the tendency of solid materials transmitting current to sort electrons by their spin direction into the material’s periphery with respect to the direction of current. This is known as the spin Hall effect in solid-state physics. We calculated the spin Hall ratios by (1) measuring the Hall voltage of a ferromagnetic layer of permalloy above the platinum at twice the frequency of the applied AC current and (2) observing the polarization shift of a laser reflecting off of this permalloy. Strain is applied using an electric field to tense (expand) the nanolayers along their thinnest axis. Our results show signs that compression has an effect on the spin Hall ratio of platinum. When we measured the polarization while applying compression, the results don't show such a relationship. Our results showed signs that other solid-state phenomena interfered with our results.
Keywords: materials science, spin hall effect, quantum, solid-state physics, electricity and magnetism, ferromagnetism, spin torque, optics
Topic(s):Physics
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 206-2
Location: MG 2050
Time: 9:45